Is this sanitary?

Alicia - posted on 09/06/2012
(
15 moms have responded
)

6

0

0

My son's soccer team wants to randomly distribute team tee shirts each week, collecting them and washing them in between games. They want to have different teams every week and give out alternating colors as kids arrive. My question is whether sharing the cotton tee shirts communally is even sanitary? We're talking about 20 different 12-14 year old boys that will be playing in them for apprx. and hour and a half. Would it be okay to just bring our own colored tee shirts and wear those?

MOST HELPFUL POSTS

Alicia, very valid questions were asked by Angela, who, by the way is just a blunt, straight forward woman, as are a lot of us on here, me included.

Where did you hear/read that wearing clothing that has previously been worn by another, then washed, is a sanitary concern? I'm curious as well! I take it that you don't shop secondhand...do you take hand-me-downs? Doesn't sound like it.

If you have the money to buy all sorts of different colored shirts for your son to wear, then by all means, do so, but you do run the risk of him being made fun of for his momma being over protective. When my eldest (now 18) was in soccer club, the coaches handed out the shirts before every game, then collected them after. He didn't wear the same shirt twice all season, I don't think, but never had a problem.

If you're truly that concerned, have him wear a neutral colored shirt underneath the other "community" shirt. That should take care of any detergent allergy concerns, and will keep that "unsanitary" used shirt from actually touching him

I'm not a germ-a-phobe by any stretch, but the idea of a bunch of teenage boys sharing shirts makes me squirm a bit (kids are DIRTY!!!).

Wow...I can't believe some of these responses! She's looking for help, not criticism! Jeez people.

It's really about trusting that the people taking care of the shirts are going to wash them properly. When it comes to the health of my child (especially considering the increased MSRA outbreaks), I don't think Alicia is being too cautious. Would YOU wear something off the rack from the Salvation Army, or would you wash it yourself...just to make sure it's clean?

I can't tell whether you have had some bad experience with other parents and their concerns that has left you emotionally scarred, or if you just like to carry around a soap box to nurse some superiority complex. I looked to this website to pose a question and start a conversation, separate from the people I have talked to that agree it's kind of gross when you think about it. I don't see anyone making a fuss or much ado about anything but you. If we were having a conversation and you immediately dove into assumptions about me and the whole situation, and chose to mock it, I would consider it to be rude and unnecessary. Notice how everyone else just answered the question. However, you chose to go with a haughty tone and sarcasm, now mocking all those colored tee shirts I must own and putting my words into "quotation marks" as if I must be fabricating the whole reason I posted the question in the first place, while going off of the barest of facts. I'm left shaking my head in amazement at your bold ignorance, and making plenty of my own assumptions.

It's fine. My son's rugby team collects the jerseys after each game, has them washed and then redistributes them the next week. Sometimes they are wearing a different jersey, because the jersey they get depends on their play position. It's common practice here for a lot of sports. They are washed, it's fine.

15 Comments

View replies by

Alicia - posted on 09/07/2012

6

0

0

Yeah, I really didn't think it would work out like this at all. I read an article in Women's Health about germs on gym towels if they are not washed properly, and I said it lead me to believe something. If I had read an expert's opinion, I wouldn't be looking further. Asking a question is completely valid when it's not coated in nastiness. How do you respond to that besides wtf?? Open internet shouldn't be an excuse for rude and insulting, so I guess I will just shut this thing down so I can move on with my life, lol!!

LOL I love reading CoM in the morning! I can smell the drama! Very entertaining conversation ladies. =) Alicia, just chill. Angela's statement about "super-sanitizing" Parents was a general remark, not aimed solely at you. If you're in an online forum, you have to be a little less sensitive.

Now on to the actual question. As long as the shirts are being washed regularly, there's no reason to send t-shirts from home, unless,like Dove said, your son has a sensitivity to laundry detergents.

If it was washed its fine. I don't know where you read or heard such thing about it being unhealthy or gross but its not. Washed means clean therefore its fine. When my child was in baseball this summer I kind of wish they did that so I could save on washing the jersey.

I don't consider myself someone who super sanitizes anything, in fact, I am well aware of the benefit of not being so. I'm not sure why asking a question must mean I have some extreme belief about it. I have read things that would lead me to believe that it is not a good idea, and thought there might be people who had experience to share. Oh, I mean, I want to marginalize my child and make a fuss. What a rude response!